It is so hard for fans to take, but at the moment, the job is all about the process of cutting out the dead wood and replacing it with stronger timbers.

Long road ahead: Brendan Rodgers faces a tough task to haul Liverpool back to the top

Nothing surprises in football, especially after almost 25 years of covering the historic institution that is Liverpool. Yet I have to confess to a slight twitch of the eyebrows returning from the Hawthorns at the weekend.

The social media revolution has brought many things, but considered opinion after calm reflection is not chief amongst them. Even so, the anger inherent in some of the responses to the opening day defeat was a little puzzling.

After - realistically - a decade of decline (it's indisputably five years, given that's when the Hicks-Gillett rot set in), and three years of Premier League mediocrity, no one, not even a nerdy kid with a plasticine scar on his head, could conjure something magical out of Liverpool Football Club.

In the past three seasons they have finished seventh, seventh, and eighth, and on all three occasions were so far off the Champions' League pace they were lapped.

That is the situation Liverpool find themselves in. They have a mid-table team (though largely still on Champions' League wages), they have had mid-table investment this summer after the excesses of the past, and they have a mid-table stadium generating mid-table revenue, with no signs of an upgrade.

Of course, they have top class fans and a top class history, which actually still stands for something, despite all the ridicule about living in the past; but even so, sixth place would be an achievement this season, and top four a bone fide miracle.

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Still world class: The Liverpool fans are some of the best in the world - even if the team isn't anymore

That is the context Liverpool and their supporters should surely have viewed the current campaign in, despite the optimism that sneaks up unawares on every fan as the opening day approaches.

And that is why the reaction on Saturday to a defeat that looked more of a freak result than an inevitable one seemed a little misplaced. The club has arrived at a position where patience is now required, because it will take time to turn the 'ocean liner' around, as owner John Henry so perfectly put it recently.

There have been four managers in three years, a change of ownership and wild changes of direction, and it can't continue like that any longer. What is required now is a long-term plan and time to implement it, which at least the current owners seem to have in place.

It obviously remains to be seen if Brendan Rodgers is the man to make Liverpool great again, but one thing is for sure, if he is that man then he will require time, patience and understanding before he arrives at that place.

In the meantime, he has a huge amount of work to. He needs to get rid of some average players signed for big wages, and replace them with hungry ones, ready to prove they are worth those colossal salaries.

He also needs to find a solution to the otherwise sublime Luis Suarez's obvious weakness in front of goal... though the pursuit of Clint Dempsey is clearly an attempt to address that.

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The answer? Rodgers wants Fulham's Clint Dempsey to weigh in with goals

Last season, Suarez was often part of a three man attack in which he was the only element remotely likely to provide a goal. Dempsey, with his prowess in that area, aligned with Fabio Borini who can also provide goals, should take the pressure off the South American, and perhaps even allow him to flourish.

If Rodgers does solve that problem, then Liverpool will be a different team, and if he can add more intelligence to his midfield and flanks (via the full backs), then he can improve on last season, and perhaps even give his side an outside shot at a Champions' League place.

Let's be honest though, that's all it will be - an outside shot, because top six is the more realistic aim. It is so hard for fans to take, but at the moment, the job is all about the process of cutting out the dead wood and replacing it with stronger timbers.

The reality of modern day football with massive long-term deals is that it often takes the length of those contracts to transform a club under a new manager, because it takes that long to get the well paid players out.

Which all means it could be two to three years before we see a real Rodgers team aiming for the top. It would be nice to think he will be given that time - by owners and fans - to at least have a shot at that.